You may be surprised to learn that there was never a debate in New Testament times regarding “salvation by grace” versus “salvation by works.” Never.

Rather, the debate was over salvation by grace through faith versus salvation by works.

Paul wrote, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph. 2:8-9). Did you notice that Paul did not contrast “grace” and “works”? Rather, he contrasted “grace through faith” and “works.”

That distinction is very important. Because when the New Testament debate is presented by modern teachers as if it was a debate between salvation by grace versus salvation by works, it misrepresents the actual debate, and it spawns false doctrines that are based on a false premise. It pits grace against works, whereas the actual New Testament debate blended both together. Allow me to prove that.

Think again about Ephesians 2:8-9. There, Paul wrote that we are saved, not by works, and not by grace, but “by grace through faith.” Both grace and faith are factors in the salvation equation: Grace + Faith = Salvation

Genuine faith, of course, always produces works. James wrote that faith without works is dead, useless, and cannot save anyone (see Jas. 2:14-24). Similarly, Paul wrote about “the obedience of faith” (Rom. 1:5; 16:26). When people genuinely believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, they repent and start striving to obey Him. Faith produces works. That is also revealed in the verse that follows Ephesians 2:8-9: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Ephesians. 2:10, emphasis added).

All of this is to say, when Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:8-9 that we are saved by grace through faith, he wasn’t pitting grace against works. He was blending them. His words could be safely paraphrased: “For by grace you have been saved through the agency of a living faith that is evidenced by works…but not as a result of your works.”

Here’s another example of the same truth from Paul:

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds (Titus 2:11-14, emphasis added).

No pitting grace against works in that passage! Rather, Paul believed that God’s grace instructs us to obey God. That blends grace with works.

Paul’s letter to the Galatians serves as another clear example of the actual debate, and it also serves as a refutation of the debate that never happened. As you probably know, Paul repeatedly championed salvation by grace in his Galatian letter, but he never pitted grace against works. On the contrary. He wrote to the Galatians:

Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God (Gal. 5:19-21, emphasis added).

Paul believed there is a standard of holiness, or “works,” tied to salvation. 

So when modern teachers present the New Testament debate as it if was between people who believed that there is a standard of holiness associated with salvation, and people who believed that there can’t be any standard of holiness associated with salvation because salvation is by grace, they completely misrepresent the biblical debate.

To put it another way, the biblical debate was between (1) those who saw no need for grace or Jesus’ sacrificial death, because they thought salvation could be earned by circumcision and keeping the Mosaic Law, that is “by works” and (2) people who realized that both Jews and Gentiles are all sinners needing grace, and who believed that Jesus provided a way for God to graciously extend an opportunity for anyone to repent, believe in the Lord Jesus, be forgiven of all their former sins, be born again, and be indwelled by the Holy Spirit who would empower them to live holy lives (but not turn them into holy robots without the capacity to live just as disobediently as they had prior to the Spirit’s indwelling), that is “by grace through faith.” That was the New Testament debate. You can read about that debate in Acts 15, for example, and in Galatians, where the word “circumcision” is mentioned 13 times in just 6 chapters.

When modern teachers pit grace against works, “like Paul did,” they reveal that they haven’t read Paul too closely yet. And when they claim that anyone who teaches that there is a standard of holiness connected to salvation is a heretic because “that can’t be salvation by grace,” they turn Jesus, Paul, Peter, John, James and Jude into heretics.

All of this is so simple to understand that only a theologian could miss it!

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